Carol asks…
Does my plot seem way too similar to Evermore?
Hi, I’m writing a book, and someone told me (very obnoxiously, actually,) on another comment that my story plotline is too similar to evermore by Alyson Noel. However, despite a couple of things and me using a name (Damen – which I actually took because he’s my favorite character in the Vampire Diaries) because I thought it sounded good, I don’t really think so. Here it is:
Basic summary:
Seventeen-year-old Aiislinn Collins had the picture-perfect life: she was the head cheerleader dating the captain of the football team, had a younger sister who completely adored her, and had two loving parents who, unlike most parents in their rich town, never even considered divorce. That is, until the accident; the doctors’ say that she should have died with Sarah and her parents, that her survival was a miracle, but Aiislinn knows it was nothing even close to one. Something wants her alive, and she has no clue what it is, nor what it wants from her. After being sent to live with her aunt, Aiislinn, using clues her sister’s ghost has been telling her in her dreams, must answer these questions herself.
More detail:
In my novel, there is a special race of humans called Lightlings. They are normal people, who have just a bit of both angel and demon blood in them. Now, because the lineage for whether you have enough angel/demon blood to be considered a Lightling requires just the right amount, it is very rare for one to be born. Once a Lightling turns eighteen, they will have to make a choice: whether they would like to become a full-angel, or whether they want to be turned into a demon. Aiislinn somehow managed to get the perfect genetics required to qualify to be a Lightling, and the leader of the demons has heard great things about her. When he sees her death approaching from that car accident, he quickly has one of his people pull her out, rescuing her from death. Aiislinn, however, becomes a mess, for she knows it isn’t sheer coincidence that she survived.
Damen, who had also been a Lightling, was forced to choose the path of demons, and is the guy who is sent to save Aiislinn. When the demon’s leader threatens his family once again, Damen is forced to go undercover at Aiislinn’s school to convince her to choose the Demon’s side. Because ghosts become aware of this ongoing battle, Sarah keeps returning to her, trying to show her what Damen really is, but Aiislinn doesn’t listen.
So, what do you think? Are they really “almost exactly the same”?
BTW, this is Evermore’s plot:
Since a horrible accident claimed the lives of her family, Ever can see auras, hear people’s thoughts, and know a person’s entire life story by touch. Going out of her way to avoid human contact and suppress her abilities has branded her as a freak at her new high school—but everything changes when she meets Damen.
Damen Auguste is gorgeous, exotic and wealthy. He’s the only one who can silence the noise and random energy in her head—wielding a magic so intense, it’s as though he can see straight into her soul. As Ever is drawn deeper into his enticing world of secrets and mystery, she’s left with more questions than answers. She has no idea just who he really is—or what he is. The only thing she knows to be true is she’s falling deeply and helplessly in love with him.
admin answers:
It is a little similar. Both lose their families in accidents, both see their sister’s ghost, both are a mess (but who wouldn’t be if they lost their family)
Not exactly alike, but similar.
Yours sounds interesting 
Nancy asks…
Why does consumer conservation cause higher prices every single time?
The City of Long Beach California has just announced the raising of water prices by 20% beginning this fall. Reason given the conservation efforts in saving water by the citizens of the city have so drastically reduced their income from the sale of water they now need to raise prices to restore the cities income to previous levels. The same thing happened a couple of years ago with natural gas. So if we get charged more for conserving why should people conserve. Also our mayor was one of the three energy company leaders that helped set up deregulation in California and allowed the Enron scam to happen.
I am going to ad a couple of relevant points that seem to be ignored by politicians and utility people all over and especially here in California. Currently the only water from rain that gets saved and used for drinking or irrigation is snow pack and what soaks into the aquifer to be pumped out or rise as springs. The rain that falls in the city that does not soak into somebody’s yard goes down the drain to the ocean. Probably close to 80% of our meek rainfall goes straight to the sea without performing any useful duty except for washing down streets and gutters.
Also as far as I have been able to learn most of the output from local sewage treatment plants goes straight to the sea instead of being pumped to the soak areas of the aquifers to ease our dependence on imported water.
admin answers:
Because the utilities have a huge fixed cost infrastructure that needs to be maintained. This take a certain amount of funds. When conservation methods are used, the utilities revenues are decreased, but they still have this enormous outlay of cash they have to make to keep the utilities flowing.
Another way to look it is from a supply and demand perspective. Some people will say, well demand has decreased, so therefore price should decrease, but that isn’t really the case.
What in fact has happened is demand has increased and increasing demand caused the conservation initiatives in the first place. If measures were not taken, then demand would have exceeded supply. This is why conservation was required. Everyone needs utilities, but the amount they need varies, and there is certainly a lot of waste.
The utility companies have been rather stupid from a Public Relations perspective. They should have raised prices to control demand initially, and then implemented a conservation strategy in order to reduce households’ monthly bill to previous levels. Then everyone would have been happier.
Powered by Yahoo! Answers